Ronald Reagan’s top ten speeches and debate moments

He was known as the Great Communicator. And whether you agreed with him or not, it’s hard to dispute that he was one of the best orators among American presidents.

As we mark the centennial of his birth, we’d like to share ten memorable moments in Reagan’s political career, from his dramatic 1964 introduction to presidential politics to his “win one for the Gipper” farewell speech to the 1988 Republican convention.

The clips are presented in chronological order.

1. “A Time for Choosing”

In 1964, Reagan supported Barry Goldwater for president and gave a televised speech on his behalf. “A Time for Choosing” not only jumpstarted Reagan’s political career, but it is still revered today as some of the best American rhetoric of all-time. Two years later, Reagan went on to take the California governorship from Democrat Pat Brown. The rest is history.

During his 1980 campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination, a two-person debate against George H.W. Bush in Nashua, N.H., was to be sponsored by the local newspaper. However, after the FEC ruled the sponsorship an illegal campaign contribution and Bush refused to pay half the cost, Reagan paid for the entire debate himself, to which he wanted to include the five other candidates. As Reagan tried to include the five other candidates in the debate, the moderator ordered his microphone turned off. He responded in his famous quote, “I’m paying for this microphone, Mr. Green!” &#151 never mind the fact the editor’s name was Breen, not Green. The other candidates were not allowed in the debate and Reagan ended up carrying New Hampshire, 50 percent to Bush’s 23 percent.

3. The Final Presidential Debate Against Jimmy Carter

In the last presidential debate of the 1980 election, incumbent President Jimmy Carter attacked Reagan’s stance on health care. Carter argued that Reagan opposed Medicare, while he was proposing universal heath insurance. Reagan began his rebuttal in the now famous words, “There you go again.” His finished the debate by asking the American people if they were better off than they were four years ago. The answer must have been no, as Reagan won the election in a come-from-behind landslide.

4. The First Inaugural Speech

Regan began his inaugural speech on the steps of the Capitol addressing the economic crisis the country was in. One sentence was echoed throughout the speech and his presidency: “Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem.”

5. The “Evil Empire”

Amid widespread public support for a nuclear weapons freeze, Ronald Reagan articulated the reason why the United States needed to aggressively challenge Godless Communism in what he described as an “evil empire.” The speech, which was condemned by liberals and many U.S. allies, was one of the clearest articulations of Reagan’s worldview.

In Normandy, France, Reagan spoke to the American Rangers who fought on D-Day in services for its 40th anniversary at the Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument. After recounting the events of D-Day and the Allied forces reclaiming the continent to liberty, Reagan then compared of the fight against fascism to the then fight against communism. He concluded, “Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value, and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.”

7. The Last Debate with Mondale

One of the major issues against Reagan as he ran for re-election against Walter Mondale was his age. A halting performance in a debate led to more attention in the media. In the final debate, when journalist Henry Trewhiit asked him if his age would be an problem, Reagan quipped, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The election was effectively over at that moment.

Never before had America lost an astronaut in flight, Reagan addressed the nation to mourn the tragic loss of the Challenger Seven. He eloquently quoted “High Flight,” a sonnet written by John Gillespire Magee, The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”

9. “Tear Down This Wall!”

This speech at Brandenburg Gate commemorated the 750th anniversary of Berlin. Reagan used the speech in front of the Berlin Wall to challenge Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to destroy the wall. A few years later, the wall fell and Reagan’s hated “evil empire” crumbled.

Although Reagan formally said farewell to the nation in the Oval Office the following January, he used his speech at the 1988 Republican National Conference to thank the nation and encouraged his former opponent and two-term vice president, George Bush, to “Win one for the Gipper.” This was an allusion to his campaign slogan based a movie role he played in 1940 about a dying football player, George Gipp, who told his team if they are down, to be inspired by him and “Win one for the Gipper.”